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Japan Data On Tap For Friday

Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Friday, setting the pace for a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

On tap are July numbers for unemployment, industrial production, vehicle production, construction orders and housing starts – plus August data for Tokyo are consumer prices.

The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 2.4 percent, while the job-to-applicant ratio is pegged at 1.63 – up from 1.62 in June.

Industrial production is tipped to add 0.2 percent on month and 2.6 percent on year after sinking 1.8 percent on month and 0.9 percent on year in the previous month.

Vehicle production climbed 4.6 percent on month in June, while construction orders skidded an annual 6.5 percent. Housing starts are expected to fall 4.3 percent on year after dropping 7.1 percent a month earlier.

Overall inflation in Tokyo is expected to add 1.0 percent on year, up from 0.9 percent in July. Core CPI is called steady at 0.8 percent.

China will see August results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs. In July, the manufacturing PMI was at 51.2, while the non-manufacturing PMI was at 54.0 and the composite came in at 53.6.

Australia will release July numbers for private sector credit, with forecasts calling for an increase of 0.3 percent on month and 4.4 percent on year. That follows the 0.3 percent monthly increase and the 4.5 percent annual increase in June.

New Zealand will see August results for the consumer confidence index from ANZ; in July, the index sank 1.3 percent to a score of 118.4.

The Bank of Korea will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 1.50 percent.

South Korea also will see July numbers for retail sales and industrial production. In June, retail sales were up 0.6 percent on month and 4.0 percent on year, while industrial production fell 0.8 percent on month and 0.7 percent on year.

The Philippines will provide August figures for producer prices; in July, prices were up 0.3 percent on month and 1.3 percent on year.

Thailand will release July data for imports, exports and trade balance, plus Q2 numbers for current account.

In June, imports were worth $18.88 billion and exports were at $21.76 billion for a trade surplus of $2.88 billion. The current account surplus in Q1 was $17.12 billion.

Finally, the markets in Malaysia are closed on Friday for the National Day holiday and will re-open on Monday.